Stealing My Brother's Wife

Xia Rushi and Xie Dang were childhood sweethearts, deeply in love, with a son and a daughter happily gathered around them. They had been married for more than ten years, yet were still in the prime of their youth.

Xie Dang was unstoppable at court, earning his wife an official title through his military achievements. Which noblewoman in the capital didn't envy Xia Rushi? Even Xia Rushi herself believed she was the happiest person in the world.

Until one day, a little boy rushed into the marquis's residence, knelt before her, and begged her to save his mother.

The boy looked to be about the same age as her eldest son!

That day, every cup and dish in the main courtyard was smashed.

Xia Rushi asked for a divorce, but Xie Dang fell to his knees and begged her, saying it had only been a casual affair. Xia Rushi left the divorce papers behind and returned to her parents' home.

On the day she returned to the capital, bandits attacked her on the road. By the time Xie Dang arrived, all that remained was a bloodstained scrap of cloth. The snow had already been soaked through with blood.

Xie Dang's eyes nearly burst with rage. He refused to believe his wife was dead and spread a vast net, waiting for her to show herself.

But month after month passed, and there was no sign of her.

Xia Rushi had indeed survived. Through a twist of fate, she returned to the marquis's residence, lying in Tingzhu Pavilion, just across a wall from the main courtyard.

Tingzhu Pavilion belonged to Xie Dang's half-brother, Xie Pan.

Xie Pan was just like his name: a silent, taciturn stone. He was thirty, yet had never been involved with women, and had lived as Xie Dang's shadow.

This was the only time he had ever dared to be bold. He rescued his sister-in-law on a snowy night, and as he carried her back to the residence, he turned toward Tingzhu Pavilion and carefully laid her on his own bed.

His sister-in-law was badly wounded and had lost her memory. He kept watch at the foot of her bed for months.

When she woke and mistook him for someone else, throwing herself into his arms and calling him her husband, he squeezed his eyes shut to keep from breaking down in tears.

As if possessed, he softly answered, "Mm."

He kept watch over her, night after night, in the marquis's secluded inner residence.

He was pure and chaste, a model of virtue. Why couldn't he be his sister-in-law's husband?

He was meant to be.

*Dang means a patterned stone.

Pan means a massive boulder, steadfast as a rock.

This is the love story of the parents in my other novel, A Match Made in Broad Daylight. I love them so much that I wanted to write about them.

Theme: Treat others sincerely